January 28, 1998

In 1998, Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, in the Breitling
Orbiter II set the world record for endurance at nine days and 17 hours -
or, to be exact, 233 hours and 55 minutes. But the journey was stopped when they
were not allowed to over-fly China. The preparation took more than four years
with a team of 13 people. Bertrand is the grandson of the balloon flight
pioneer, Auguste Piccard. With Brian Jones, Bertrand accomplished the first
complete non-stop round-the-world flight March 21, 1999 in the Breitling
Orbiter 3.